Apparatus for twisting the ends of stranded material before and after winding on spools



Jan. 9, 1968 Filed Jan. 13,. 1966 E. MEILE E L APPARATUS FOR TWIS'P'ING imzi'mms QF STRANDED MATERIAL BEFORE AND AFTER wmmue ON SPOOLS Sheets-Sheet 1 M675? ll ma s/vmks Ernst Meile Hansjorg Meler 8y PM, JW

2, mm WWW/V6345 Jan. 9, 1968 E. MEILE ET AL 3,362,440

APPARATUS FOR TWISTING THEENDS OF STRANDED MATERIAL BEFORE AND AFTER WINDING ON SPOOLS Filed Jan. 13, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Ernsi Meile Hansjbrg MeLer Y PM jvfilggew 80 Pa/Jm I WNEYS United States Patent APPARATUS FOR TWISTING THE ENDS 0F STRANDED MATERIAL BEFORE AND AF- TER WINDING 0N SPOOLS Ernst Meile, Zurich, and Hansjiirg Meier, Muri, Switzerland, assignors to Micafil A.G., Zurich, Switzerland, a joint-stock company Filed Jan. 13, 1966, Ser. No. 520,319 Claims. (Cl. 140-149) The present invention relates to wire or similar strand twisting apparatus and is particularly concerned with an improved device adapted to be attached to conventional coil winding machine by means of which the leading end of the wire or other strand material to be wound into coil form on the machine can be twisted to strengthen it prior to starting the coil winding process. The device also similarly provides for twisting and hence, strengthening the trailing end of the wire after the coil has been wound. This strengthening of the leading and trailing ends of the wire used for forming the coil is particularly desirable when winding wire of comparatively small diameters such as 0.1 mm. or less, so as to establish enough mass and rigidity at the coil ends to enable the ends to be soldered to soldering lugs.

In accordance with previous methods of wire twisting, the twisting was done either by hand, or mechanically by means of a small motor. In case of the motored twisting device, the wire end was lead repeatedly over two spaced hooks to form a series of loops of parallel strands, and one of the hooks was then rotated about its axis either by hand or by motor to twist the multilooped wire strands. However, with twisting devices of the prior known constructions, the twisting step could only be carried out as an additional process before and after winding the coil and only after the ends of the wire had been cut off.

In accordance with the present invention, means are provided which permit the wire ends to be twisted during the continuous course of the winding procedure of the coil without interrupting the wire. One suitable embodiment of the invention will hereinafter be described and is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a somewhat schematic lay-out of the twisting mechanism as a whole;

FIG. 2 is a view showing more details of the control mechanism;

FIG. 3 is a view, drawn to a somewhat enlarged scale showing a wire end twisted into a bundle in accordance with the invention, and especially the upper looped end; and

FIG. 4 is a detail of a portion of the gear drive transmission of the apparatus, drawn to an enlarged scale, as seen from the rear of FIG. 2.

With reference now to the drawings, the wire 1 or other similar strand material to be wound into a coil form on a spool, is drawn from a wire supply unit which comprises a wire supply spool 2, guide pulley 2a, tension arm 3 and guide pulley 4 at the outer end of arm 3. After leaving pulley 4, the wire 1 is drawn through the novel twisting device in accordance with the present invention, this device being indicated in FIG. 1 within the dashed line rectangle. It first passes over guide pulley 5, then around guide pulley 6 attached to the twisting apparatus and thence through a tube-shaped slit axle 7 to pulley 8 secured to the other end of this axle from whence it passes to a further pulley 9 mounted at the outer end of a lever arm 10 which is shiftable somewhat radially with respect to the axis of axle 7. Axle 7 is provided on one side with a gear 11. After leaving pulley 9, the wire is looped a number of times over spaced hooks 16 and 17 to form a plurality of parallel strands and then twisted,

3,362,440 Patented Jan. 9, 1968 and then passed out of the twisting device to and over guide pulley 13 mounted on a traversable guide 14 to the rotatably mounted coil former or spool 15 on a conventional Wire winding machine.

At the beginning of the coil winding procedure, and also at the end thereof, the wire 1 is twisted more or less intensely in order to strengthen the end portions of the wire for soldering. In order to effect this twisting, the following operations are made to take place within the novel twisting device in accordance with the invention.

The wire 1 running over pulley 9 is first wound on the two spaced hooks 16, 17 through a rotary motion of lever 10 about the axis of axle 7 by means of a drive motor 28. The number of turns of the wire about these hooks is determined by a counter, not shown which controls the operation of motor 28. Hook 16 is firmly secured to a yieldably mounted lever 22 and the latter points obliquely downward in the direction of the wire guide 14 on the winding machine. Hook 17 is rotatably supported about its vertical shaft part 18. After motor 28 has rotated lever arm 10 through the desired number of revolutions to establish the desired number of turns, or loops of the wire about the spaced hooks 16, 17, hook 17 will now be driven in rotation about the axis of its vertical shaft 18 by means of a driving connection with another motor 27 which includes a drive shaft 38 driven by this motor, and gear 39 on shaft 38 which is meshed with gear 40 on hook shaft 18. Motor 27 exerts a continuous torque, via a ratchet wheel 19, and pawl 20 loaded by spring 21 which holds shaft 38 fast in one direction, whereby for the wire twisting, the motor 27 is driven in the opposite direction. For this purpose, motor 27 is reversed at the proper time. The loops of wire wound up between hooks 16, 17 are in this manner, twisted in a cord-like manner during the twisting time that motor 27 runs. The continuous shortening of the looped wire between the two hooks which inherently accompanies the twisting is accommodated by the spring action of hook 16 on lever 22 through a corresponding movement of this hook in the direction of hook 17.

During twisting of the looped wire between hooks 16 and 17, lever arm 10 together with pulley 9 performs an additional angular movement 23 (see FIG. 2) about axle 7. This angular movement prevents that portion of the wire located between hook 17 and pulley 9 from being torn off or turned about the axis of rotation of the hook shaft 18. By this tilting movement of lever arm 10, a screwshaped winding up of the wire below the wire bundle eyelet 24 resultsas shown in FIG. 3.

The tilting movement of lever arm 10 is brought about by the control mechanism shown in FIG. 2 wherein it will be seen that this movement of lever arm 10 is imparted to it by a toothed belt transmission 29 disposed between drive shaft 25 and axle 7.

A clutch which is spring loaded in one direction is interposed in the drive between motor 28 and shaft 25. No'w, when the tilting movement of lever arm 10 is to be carried out, clutch half 33 (see FIG. 2) located on the axis of rotation of shaft 25 is rotated by means of a pneumatic cylinder 30 by means of an actuating member 32 attached to the outer end of the piston rod 31 of cylinder 30'. After the twisting, a retracting spring 34 pulls back the shaft 25 to its original position. With this, the clutch half 26 located on the motor shaft serves at the same time as a rest holder or detent 35 including a detent spring 36 and pulling magnet 37 to fix shaft 25 in the normal position of lever arm 10, thus in its position about hook 17, whereby the pulling magnet 37 is energized to release the detent as long as motor 28 is running. Be

tween drive shaft 25 and axle 7, also a gear transmission 57, 58a, 58b beside the toothed transmission 29 is arranged (see FIG. 4). This has to be so understood that each rotary motion of shaft 25 is guided at first over the toothed belt transmission 29 and followingly over said gear transmission 57, 58a, 58b to axle 7 and lever arm 10. This is necessary for the reason that the whole axle group 7, 11 is slit in order to ease the threading of the wire. Across two intermediate wheels 58a, 58b, driven by a further gear 57, the slit gear 11 is always kept in a free-locking connection to the toothed belt transmission. Thus, this toothed belt transmission works upon the lastmentioned gear 57.

As the twisting of the uncut wire ends is carried out during the coil winding cycle, the hook 17 must be swung out from the wire bundle eyelet 24 after termination of the twisting procedure. Hook 17 is driven by the drive shaft 38 by means of the pair of meshed bevel gears 39, 40. Now the swinging out of hook 17 is brought about by means of a pneumatic cylinder 41, moving piston rod 42 after the twisting has taken place, whereby the pneumatic cylinder 41 being actuated by an adjustable control element, not described herein in detail. Rod 42, with brace 54, welded to it takes along bearing 43 which in its turn is fastened to brace 54, whereby the bearing group 52, turnable about bearing 43 and in which group is rotarily journalled the shaft 18 of the bevel gear 40, is taken along as well. Consequently, through this lateral movement of rod 42 the bevel gear 40 is at first loosened from the meshing with the driving bevel gear 39 across brace 54 and bearing group 52. When the bevel gear 40 is completely disengaged from the bevel gear 39 it is rotarily swung downward about the bearing 43 through striking of the roll 53, which is firmly connected to the bearing group 52., against the stop 44. By means of this, the upper wire piece with the wire bundle eyelet 24 is pressed against the stripping off bridge 45, and the twisting hook 17 is swung out from the wire bundle eyelet 24. After bevel gear 40 has been disengaged from gear 39, a rotary motion of gear 40 must be prevented. This is accomplished in such manner that shaft 18 is held fast during the stroke of cylinder 41. For this purpose, an indexing pin 46 on lever 47 ratchets into a recess of an indexing disc 49, which, like the bevel gear 40, is firmly connected to the shaft 18. The lever 47 is pulled by means of the spring 48 against an adjustable stop 56 fastened to the rod 50. Lever 47 is rotatable about a bearing 55 connected to the bearing group 52. Consequently, besides the bearing group 52 with brace 54 the lever 47 is moved as well by means of the rod 42. On the return stroke of cylinder 41, a restoring spring 51 brings the bearing group 52 of shaft 18 (together with twisting hook 17 and bevel gear 40) again to the original position. With correct adjustment of the stop 56 an unobjectionable tooth meshing between the bevel gears 40- and 39 is thus secured.

As soon as hook 17 is swung out from eyelet 24, the twisted wire bundle can be pulled to the coil former 15, the more so, since because of that, the lower wire bundle eyelet is pulled out from the lower obliquely positioned hook 16.

In the event that a plurality of coils are being wound on the same winding machine, a plurality of wire twisting devices, each as shown in the drawings, can be coupled together for operation in common by means of an extension of the drive and control shafts as indicated schematically in FIG. 1 by the arrows.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for twisting the lead and trailing portions of a wire of comparatively small diameter which is to be wound into coil form on a coil former of a conventional coil winding machine and which is interposed between said coil former and a storage reel from which the wire is pulled, said twisting apparatus comprising a pair of spaced hooks, means including wire guide pulleys with a motor driven rotatable lever arm for looping an uncut portion of the wire between the storage reel and coil former a plurality of times over said spaced hooks to form a bundle of parallel wire strands, means for thereafter rotating one of said hooks thereby to twist said strand bundle and also establish an eyelet at that end of the twisted strand bundle which is engaged by said rotatable hook, and means thereafter removing said rotatable hook from said eyelet to enable said bundled and twisted portion of said uncut wire to be drawn towards said coil former.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 for twisting wire wherein said lever arm after being rotated to establish said wirebundle on said spaced hooks also performs a tilting motion about its axis of rotation, said tilting motion establishing during the twisting operation a helical-shaped winding of the wire about one end of the twisted wire bundle.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 for twisting Wire wherein said lever arm is mounted on an axle which is slit in a direction longitudinally of the axis of rotation of said axle, and which further includes wire guide pulleys located at opposite ends of said axle, the tangent points of contact between the wire and said guide pulleys being coincident with the axis of rotation of said axle.

4. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 for twisting wire wherein said rotatable hook after rotation to twist said wire bundle is caused by said hook removing means to perform a lateral swinging motion so as to cause said eyelet portion to strike against and be stopped and be slightly bent in a sidewise direction by a stripping off bridge whilst the hook maintains its motion thereby to withdraw the hook from said eyelet, said bent eyelet portion preventing said wire bundle from opening itself when subjected to a normal wire pulling tension.

5. A plurality of apparatus as defined in claim 1 for twisting wire for use on a multiple coil winding machine, all of said apparatus being actuated by a common drive and control unit for the several rotatable lever arms and rotatable wire twisting hooks.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,567,537 9/1951 Workman -149 CHARLES W. LANHAM, Primary Examiner.

L. A. LARSON, Assistant Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR TWISTING THE LEAD AND TRAILING PORTIONS OF A WIRE OF COMPARATIVELY SMALL DIAMETER WHICH IS TO BE WOUND INTO COIL FORM ON A COIL FORMER OF A CONVENTIONAL COIL WINDING MACHINE AND WHICH IS INTERPOSED BETWEEN SAID COIL FORMER AND A STORAGE REEL FROM WHICH THE WIRE IS PULLED, SAID TWISTING APPARATUS COMPRISING A PAIR OF SPACED HOOKS, MEANS INCLUDING WIRE GUIDE PULLEYS WITH A MOTOR DRIVEN ROTATABLE LEVER ARM FOR LOOPING AN UNCUT PORTION OF THE WIRE BETWEEN THE STORAGE REEL AND COIL FORMER A PLURALITY OF TIMES OVER SAID SPACED HOOKS TO 